The Ties That Bind
by LeadYouIn
Summary: It is completely impossible to tell where one of us ends and the other begins. Team Seven friendship oneshot.


Chapter One

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto

People say that a single strand can be broken, just like that. By itself it can't do anything, it can't be anything meaningful, and I guess that's what we all want out of life. If you would have told me that I'd end up with the biggest idiot in my class and my own personal heartthrob as teammates I would have passed out. Out like a light from the sheer joy of having Sasuke-kun beside me because, together we could do anything! But, the thought of having _him_ along for the ride, well, that just wouldn't do.

I think I was a bitch, an honest-to-god bitch. I would throw myself at Sasuke like a rag doll, and I only say that because he threw me away like one, but whenever it came to Naruto, I could've passed for an enemy ninja with all my screaming and head mashing. It's kind of weird to think of how much everything changed, no, not everything changed, only we did.

During the few months that we spent as an actual, honest-to-god team, I actually started to get to know the people I was going to have to work with. And, the more I got to know them, the more I realized that this wasn't going to be such a chore. Well, working with Sasuke-kun could never be a chore but with a lazy pervert as a sensei and the village's resident loudmouth….need I say more? Sasuke would always be the godsend, saving me from my innumerable mistakes on missions, like my knight in shining armor, showing up just in time to rescue the princess (me) from the bad guys. I'd play these scenarios over and over in my head. How, after he'd saved me, _again_, he would swoop down and kiss me so passionately that I'd just know that he loved me. But every time that I got saved, he just walked away, and so I just kept on falling…waiting for him to finally catch me before I shattered into a million pieces.

You could say that I was, and probably still am, narrow-minded. Once I make up my mind it takes and act of god to change the way I see things. All my life, I'd been told to hate the only kid in the village with the symbol of the spiral on his clothes, the _Uzumaki_. Just the way people said it, or looked as other people said it, was enough to make you wonder just what the unlucky bastard did. I never actually met Naruto until my third year at the academy. I was supposed to go to 'normal' school. My parents were good people; they owned a small business in Konoha, earning just enough to get by. They sent me to 'normal' school, which is just another way to say an elementary school where they taught math, science, geography, the normal stuff. But, since Konoha was a hidden ninja village, that kind of school cost a lot of money and after a year my parents couldn't afford it anymore. And so…it was off to the ninja academy where I met fore mentioned bastard and heartthrob.

I fell in with Ino-pig and her group after she stuck up for me with that damn Wantanabe Ami. To this day, I don't think she managed to graduate from the academy. For a while everything was smooth sailing, I just hung out with Ino all day. We could talk about anything and everything…from how much our parents bugged us to the weather. Then we hit that inevitable stage of life…the 'b' word came into play. Boys. Or to be more specific, a certain boy. A certain boy that I am still in love with after eight years. The one-and-only Uchiha Sasuke.

When I decided that Ino and I weren't going to be friends anymore I wasn't sure whether or not I was making the right choice. A huge part of me reminded myself that Ino stuck up for me all those years ago, she was the only one who saw past my mutant forehead (which by the way isn't big at all!) and got to know the person inside. A smaller part of me, that regrettably ended up winning this internal debate, told me that **I** was in love and that **I** deserved Sasuke-kun more than she did, even though I knew she had a crush on him. I always wonder how we would have turned out if I had taken the road less traveled by, set aside what I wanted for what I knew was good for the both of us. After our fight in the chuunin exam, Ino gave me back the friendship ribbon I'd given back to her. She told me that I was a beautiful flower, just like my namesake. She'll never know much that means to me.

Uzumaki Naruto – where do I even begin to try to explain the ramen-loving goofball with the heart of gold? I'd put up barriers against him since our academy days and he managed to tear them all down within a couple of days of our team assignments. He showed me what amazing strength and compassion were underneath the idiot on the outside. And once he showed it to me, I knew I would never be able to resist again. He snuck up on me and grabbed onto my heart. If he ever dares to let go … then he shall know pain. I think that all he ever wanted was for people to give him a chance to show them the real him. And who was I to say no to that, not to let him onto the life raft that I had been pulled onto just before? He saved me from Gaara and from Orochimaru and from Akatsuki but, more importantly, from my own personal hell. If he had left with Sasuke-kun, I would just be so far gone. That's what makes me know that he'll be the best Hokage in our history some day, and that day is coming soon.

When Sasuke-kun left for Orochimaru, more than anything…I wanted to feel angry at him. I wanted to know that if I saw him again he'd be reduced to a pile of dirt because of an unconscious rage blackout. But, I couldn't do that. I locked myself in my room for weeks. I wanted to feel better….I wanted to let go of him…but I couldn't. So, eventually I accepted that I would love him for as long as I lived. By eventually, I mean over a period of two years. The training I had with Tsunade-sama cleared the proverbial fog in my mind. I had to find out whether I loved the things he did for me, like saving me from certain and incredibly untimely death, or because of him…just Sasuke….just what was left when you took away the name and the skills. And I got my answer…yes. It came to me in the strangest way. I had just saved a patient's life in the hospital…filling in for Tsunade-sama who was 'indisposed'. The patient was suffering from chakra depletion and multiple lacerations of the torso and appendages. After I healed him, he told me I was strong. And just like that I believed him. Yet, I still felt that something was missing. I had everything that most girls dream of, good ninja skills, good body (if I do say so myself), great friends, but there was still a gaping hole. This hole only ever felt like someone had tried to fill it up again when Sasuke-kun was around, trying to help me, looking out for me, in his own twisted way. It was at that moment that I gave up trying to forget him, I gave up waiting for him by the gate so I could see whether or not I had it in me to tell him goodbye, once and for all. I think it was at that exact moment that I finally understood why Sasuke-kun left us. I knew that he was happy; he just had a different way of showing it than Naruto and I did.

When we finally got him back…I thought my heart was going to explode. I cried and cried and held onto him so tightly…I refused to let go for anyone or anything, but the stranger thing was that he held onto me too. That was, in his own way, an apology and a promise that never again would that happen.

Of course it wasn't anywhere near easy to get people to accept him again. His fan club took him back right away (much to my chagrin) but the village looked at him, and all they would see was the symbol on his back. It was probably one of the hardest years of my life, actually, not just mine…Naruto's and Kakashi-sensei's too. We fought hard for his rights and pummeled anybody who had the guts to call him a traitor and a coward within our earshot.

We changed. We went from being Team Seven…three absurdly different people thrown into a random group with a perverted teacher for no apparent rhyme or reason to being Team Seven – the three closest friends that trusted each other with their lives no matter what happened.

Sure, we got the skill of our legendary teachers, even becoming legends ourselves, but that didn't matter anymore. All that mattered was the incredibly bond we share. We went from being three separate strands to being so intertwined –by braiding, weaving, knotting, whatever – that it is now completely impossible to tell where one of us ends and the other begins. And, that's the way it should be, is now, and always will be.

OoOoOoOoOoO

Author's note: So…it's my team friendship stories…how was it? It was from Sakura's perspective (just incase my writing really is that bad lol). If you have a comment, or a request for the next chapter just say so in your review! Thanks for reading!


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